'When I first got my hands on an IBM PC, just on a whim, I typed "basic" at the c:\ prompt.'

I've got an issue with my Mac at the moment. It keeps thinking the backups (on a remote drive) are corrupted and wants to restart them from scratch. I am trying to fix this. This has involved me typing things like:

I love this quote Attoman! "Jobs undeerstood that he and Woz were building computers for non-engineers and this is what distinguished Apple for me and still does."

To that I would also add Steve's belief that his company's products shouldn't have much of a learning curve, to the point where no user manual should be needed. Just start playing with it and you will figure it out.

Since non-engineers are the vast majority of the mass-market of consumers, this is in my opinion exactly how it should be.

Steve not only understood Clarke's third law -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" -- but also it's corollary that any sufficiently advanced technology should be fundamentally simple to use.

"Jobs undeerstood that he and Woz were building computers for non-engineers and this is what distinguished Apple for me and still does."

Yes, that rings true. And it may also explain why I've never warmed to them.

When I first got my hands on an IBM PC, just on a whim, I typed "basic" at the c:\ prompt. Up popped the original Basic editor. Wow. That's the kind of thing that impresses me. This was a computer, not just a glorified word processor.

In 1972, I came up with a Univ. class project, "Play Tic Tac Tow" against a unit, size of cigarette box. My prof. Dr Joe Armstrong flew with Bushnell in Korean war and they knew each other. So Dr Armstrong got Mr. Bushnell to look at my project and I was given a job and a desk in a house on North Mathilda with 2 more engineers. Backyard and garage was production and living room was lobby and our desks. One of the small bed rooms was Mr. Bushnell's office. I had interviews at Fairchild, HP etc. Fancy places. So thats the way it went. luxury took over.

Apple won the first PC round in the late 70's early 80's because Visicalc choose the Apple platform.

No design of Woz (a great guy who should be honored for his role in education) had any key role in Apple's success over other local PC makers in the early days.

Indeed the best PC of 1975 (before Apple incorporated) was the Tektronix GRAPHICS computer the 4051 with integrated megapoint display, built in computer grade tape drive storage and expandible ROM pack (in which we posted full conics generator).

When I took our touch pad down to Jobs storefront operation what I was most impressed by was not the Apple II it was the user friendly literature.

Jobs undeerstood that he and Woz were building computers for non-engineers and this is what distinguished Apple for me and still does.

It's a lesson Tektronix, IBM and many other former PC manufacturers have failed to learn.

>> Sorry, not much on that. Bushnell was selling nhis new book on cultivate Jobs-like employees though.

Jobs was a great leader in his unique way. Yet, I am not sure he was a classical business leader, so studying him could be challenging. He did opposite of all the things business school will tell not to do. He has one P/L, B/S etc in Apple making the thesis that units must be run as profit centers useless. He was autocratic and secretive and was never a team person as Apple was known to be the best teamed-enclave. But he has result and that is the most important that in business.